Monthly Archives: June 2015

We all are familiar with the FDA Nutrition Facts label. This label can be a useful tool to get an idea about the ratio of nutritional factors in any foods that we eat. It does not give useful information about the quality of the ingredients, just quantitative values for elements like protein, carbohydrate, fat, and fiber.

Use this label to get a basic idea of these ratios as a beginning point for understanding the nutritional content of any packaged food. For foods that are not packaged, like whole foods in the bulk bins, you can look up this information online. I shop at Sprouts Market for many of the bulk items I use. Here is an online tool that they have available.read more

It is amazing what going away for week will tell you about how much “home” is essential to wellness.

There is an old saying, “Home is where the heart is”; and I think this phrase is a very profound truth.

Here are a few lessons I learned on my week away from home.

1. Experience the gratitude in sharing the loving and caring that a visit with family can bring to your life.

Every visit with my in-laws is a joy for me. I am fortunate to have a very positive relationship with my wife’s family. This alone is reason for a large portion of gratitude! I can honestly say that I feel as much a part of my wife’s family as I do my own. Not only is this a source of gratitude, it is a source of stress reduction when I travel to visit them.read more

Some of the comments on last week’s post have stimulated my thinking about change. One of the elements of successful change that has been identified is the presence of what we are terming “intrinsic” or internal motivation. If the desire to change is coming from within, it is more likely to produce a lasting change. At least that is the way it can work. The interesting thing is that there is nothing in this life that can be simplified to a “black or white” frame. We are incredibly complex organisms, and the ways we interact with all of our experiences are diverse, dynamic, and mutable – changing with every exchange of information between the inner and outer environment.read more

It seems that weight loss is one of the most prevalent topics on fitness and wellness blogs. I have made a couple of suggestions regarding diet and food over the months and feel like the overall focus seems misguided. One of the most difficult challenges for anyone who has a “weight loss” goal, is the ability to keep off the weight once it has been “lost”. Today, I think it will be helpful to redefine the goal and rethink the process.

1. What do we really want?

Is it all about how many pounds my body weighs? Is it about my body mass index (BMI) score? Is it about how I look in the mirror? Is it about how many chronic diseases I currently suffer from, or how many I am at risk for contracting? All of these questions are important for a variety of different reasons. We all will probably answer them all very differently.read more